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1903
1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. Events January : Edward VII becomes Emperor of India.]] : first teddy bear.]] * January 1 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east-west broadcast having been made in 1901). February * February 11 – The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races. * February 15 – Morris and Rose Michtom introduce the first teddy bear in America. * February 17 – El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve. * February 23 – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity". March * March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens. * March 3 – The British admiralty announces plans to build a naval base at Rosyth. * March 5 – The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway. * March 12 – The University of Puerto Rico is founded. * March 14 – The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate later rejects the treaty. * March 19 – The oldest Turkish football club, Besiktas JK, is founded in Istanbul. April * April 7 – Fredrikstad Football Club (FFK) is founded in Norway. * April 29 – A 30-million-m3 landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta. May * May 4 – The leading Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev is killed in a skirmish with the Turkish army. * May 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens. * May 22 – The White Star Liner, SS Ionic, is launched. * May 24 – The Paris-Madrid race begins, during which at least eight people are killed. June * June 11 – Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga are assassinated. * June 12 – The Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music. * June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon, is nearly destroyed by a cloud burst that resulted in a flash flood that kills an estimated 238 people. * June 27 – 19-year-old American socialite Aida de Acosta becomes the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo when she pilots Santos-Dumont's motorized dirigible, “No. 9”, from Paris to Château de Bagatelle in France. : 1903 Ford Model A.]] July * July 1–July 19 – First Tour de France bicycle race, won by Maurice Garin. * July 7 – The British take over the Fulani Empire. * July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A. * July 30–August 23 (July 17–August 10, O.S.) – Second Congress of the All-Russian Social Democratic Labour Party held in exile in Brussels, transferring to London. August * August 2 – The Ilinden Uprising, organized by the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, breaks out in the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Adrianople. * August 4 – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope. * August 10 – Paris Metro train fire takes place. * August 25 – Judiciary Act passed. September * September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile. * September 14 – Joseph Chamberlain resigns as British Colonial Secretary, in order to campaign publicly for Imperial Preference. * September 15 – Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto-Alegrense is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil * September 24 – Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin. * September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills 11 people, inspires a ballad and song. * September 29 – Prussia becomes the first locality to require mandatory drivers licenses for operators of motor vehicles. October * October – Frank Nelson Cole proves that 267-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying every Sunday for 3 years. * October 1 – The first modern World Series, pitting the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates against Boston of the American League, begins at Pittsburgh's Exposition Park. * October 6 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time. * October 10 – The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in the UK. * October 13 – Boston wins its first of seven World Series titles, beating Pittsburgh at their home park, Huntington Avenue Grounds. November : The first flight by Orville Wright.]] * November 3 – Founding of Argentinian football team, Newell's Old Boys in the city of Rosario. * November 4 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia. * November 13 – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama. * November 17 – The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"). * November 18 – The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone. * November 23 – Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike. December * December 16 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay opens its doors to guests. * December 17 – Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight. * December 30 – Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago kills 600. Date unknown * The Lincoln-Lee Legion is established to promote the temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledges by children. * The first box of Crayola crayons was made and sold for 5 cents. It contained 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black. * Osea Island in Maldon, Essex, England was bought by Mr. Frederick Charrington. Births January * January 6 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993) * January 7 – Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974) * January 10 – Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975) * January 11 ** Hans Redlich, Austrian composer (d. 1968) ** Alan Paton, South African author and anti-apartheid activist. (d. 1988) * January 12 – Igor Kurchatov, Soviet physicist (d. 1960) * January 16 – William Grover-Williams, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1945) * January 22 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966) * January 27 – John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997) February * February 2 – Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Dutch mathematician (d. 1996) * February 4 – Alexander Imich, American parapsychologist and chemist * February 6 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991) * February 8 ** Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977) ** Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990) * February 10 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939) * February 11 – Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966) * February 13 – Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989) * February 14 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967) * February 16 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978) * February 21 ** Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977) ** Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976) * February 22 ** Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer and media personality (d. 1990) ** Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (d. 1969) ** Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1930) * February 26 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979) * February 27 – Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970) * February 28 – Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986) March * March 4 ** Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973) ** William C. Boyd, American immunochemist (d. 1983) ** Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (d. 1990) ** John Scarne, American magician and card expert (d. 1985) * March 6 – Empress Kōjun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000) * March 10 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz musician (d. 1931) * March 11 ** Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and historian (d. 1989) ** Lawrence Welk, American television musician (d. 1992) * March 14 – Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979) * March 20 – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979) * March 24 – Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995) * March 25 – Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (d. 1990) * March 28 – Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991) * March 31 – H. J. Blackham, British humanist and author (d. 2009) April * April 5 – Hilda Bruce, British zoologist (d. 1974) * April 6 ** Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player (d. 1962) ** Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (d. 1990) * April 10 – Clare Boothe Luce, American publisher and writer (d. 1987) * April 12 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994) * April 15 – John Williams, English-born actor (d. 1983) * April 17 ** Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976) ** Morgan Taylor, American athlete (d. 1975) * April 19 – Eliot Ness, American treasury agent (d. 1957) * April 24 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician (d. 1936) * April 25 – Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987) * April 28 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (d. 1979) May * May 2 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician (d. 1998) * May 3 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977) * May 4 – Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984) * May 6 – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977) * May 8 – Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971) * May 10 – Hans Jonas, German-born philosopher(d. 1993) * May 11 – Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d. 1993) * May 21 – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982) * May 24 – Lofton R. Henderson, American naval aviator, died in The Battle of Midway (d. 1942) * May 29 – Bob Hope, English-born American comedian and actor (d. 2003) June * June 1 – Vasyl Velychkovsky Ukrainian bishop (d. 1973) * June 6 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978) * June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987) * June 10 – Theo Lingen, German actor (d. 1978) * June 12 – Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925) * June 16 ** Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972) ** Huldreich Georg Früh, Swiss composer (d. 1945) * June 18 ** Jeanette MacDonald, American singer and actress (d. 1965) ** Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923) * June 19 ** Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941) ** Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965) * June 20 – Eddie Laughton, British-born American film actor (d. 1952) * June 21 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003) * June 22 ** John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934) ** Jiro Horikoshi, Japanese aircraft designer (d. 1982) * June 25 ** Pierre Brossolette, French journalist and resistance fighter (d. 1944) ** George Orwell, English author (d. 1950) * June 29 – Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942) July * July 1 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941) * July 2 ** Harwell Hamilton Harris, American architect (d. 1990) ** Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995) ** King Olav V of Norway (d. 1991) * July 3 – Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992) * July 4 – Corrado Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 2005) * July 6 – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982) * July 10 – John Wyndham, British author (d. 1969) * July 13 – Kenneth Clark, English art historian (d. 1983) * July 21 – Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector (d. 2010) August * August 3 ** Habib Bourguiba, former President of Tunisia (d. 2000) ** Fahri Koruturk, former President of Turkey (d. 1987) * August 6 – Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (d. 1999) * August 7 ** Rudolph Ising, cartoon animator (d. 1992) ** Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972) * August 13 – Chubby Johnson, American actor (d. 1974) * August 18 – Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983) * August 19 – James Gould Cozzens, American writer (d. 1978) * August 23 – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982) * August 31 ** Arthur Godfrey, American radio and television host (d. 1983) ** Hugh Harman, cartoon animator (d. 1982) September * September 7 ** Shimaki Kensaku, Japanese author (d. 1945) ** John Kloza, Polish professional baseball player and manager (d. 1962) * September 8 – Jane Arbor, British writer (d. 1994) * September 9 ** Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer (d. 2008) ** Edward Upward, British author (d. 2009) * September 11 – Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969) * September 13 – Claudette Colbert, American actress (d. 1996) * September 15 – Roy Acuff, American country musician (d. 1992) * September 17 – Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984) * September 21 – Preston Tucker, American automobile designer (d. 1956) * September 25 ** Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Pakistani journalist, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1979) ** Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970) October * October 1 – Vladimir Horowitz, Russian pianist (d. 1989) * October 4 – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer engineer (d. 1995) * October 5 – M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (d. 1989) * October 6 – Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995) * October 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (d. 1979) * October 10 – Bei Shizhang, Chinese biologist and educator (d. 2009) * October 16 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003) * October 18 – Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983) * October 22 ** George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989) ** Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (d. 1976) ** Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz, American comedian and actor (The Three Stooges) (d. 1952) * October 25 ** Katharine Byron, American politician (d. 1976) ** Harry Shoulberg, American painter (d. 1995) * October 26 – Bill Allington, American baseball player and manager (d. 1966) * October 28 – Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966) November * November 1 – Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (d. 1973) * November 2 – Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (d. 1944) * November 3 – Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975) * November 4 – Watchman Nee, Chinese preacher, local church planter (d. 1972) * November 6 – Carl Rakosi, German-born poet (d. 2004) * November 7 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989) * November 19 – Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965) * November 27 – Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976) * November 29 – E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and presidential candidate (d. 1992) December * December 5 ** Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor (d. 2011) ** Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969) * December 4 ** Lazar Lagin, Soviet writer (d. 1979) ** A. L. Rowse, English historian (d. 1997) * December 12 ** Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer and pianist (d. 1976) ** Yasujiro Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963) * December 13 – Ella Baker, American civil rights activist (d. 1986) * December 17 – Erskine Caldwell, American author (d. 1987) * December 19 – George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996) * December 22 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983) * December 24 – Joseph Cornell, American sculptor (d. 1972) * December 26 – Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995) * December 28 ** Earl Hines, American jazz pianist (d. 1983) ** John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1957) * December 31 ** Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992) ** Will Mastin, American vaudevillian (d. 1975) Deaths January–June * January 3 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837) * January 17 – Quintin Hogg, British philanthropist (b. 1845) * January 28 ** Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847) ** Robert Planquette, French composer (b. 1850) * February 1 – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (b. 1819) * February 7 – James Glaisher, English meteorologist and aeronaut (b. 1809) * February 14 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (b. 1831) * February 22 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860) * February 26 – Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (b. 1818) * March 4 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1834) * March 6 – Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris, French scholar (b. 1839) * March 13 – George Granville Bradley, English vicar and scholar (b. 1821) * March 16 – Roy Bean, American pioneer (b. 1825) * March 28 – Emile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845) * April 3 – Margaret Ann Neve, supercentenarian (b. 1792) * April 19 – Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician (b. 1820) * April 28 – Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839) * May 4 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872) * May 8 – Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848) * May 13 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (b. 1864) * June 11 ** Nikolai Bugaev, Russian mathematician (b. 1837) ** Draga Mašin, Serbian queen consort (b. 1861) ** Aleksandar Obrenović, Serbian king (b. 1876) * June 19 – Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832) July–December * July 2 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player (b. 1867) * July 11 – William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849) * July 13 – Béni Kállay, Austro-Hungarian statesman (b. 1839) * July 17 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834) * July 20 – Pope Leo XIII, Italian Roman Catholic Pope (b. 1810) * August 1 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman (b. 1852) * August 5 – Phil May, English artist (b. 1864) * August 17 – Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825) * August 22 – Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830) * September 18 – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818) * October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian-Jewish author (b. 1880) * October 20 – Thomas Vincent Welch, American politician (b. 1850) * October 22 – William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Irish historian and member of the House of Commons (b. 1838) * November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817) * November 13 – Camille Pissarro, French painter (b. 1830) * November 25 – Sabino Arana, Spanish Basque writer and nationalist (b. 1865) * December 8 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820) Nobel Prizes * Physics – Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie * Chemistry – Svante August Arrhenius * Medicine – Niels Ryberg Finsen * Literature – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson * Peace – William Randal Cremer References * Category:1903